Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, on Tuesday appeared before the State High Court in Port Harcourt to testify as a witness in a Seven Billion Naira (N7B) libel suit against Thisday Newspaper.
Governor Wike said he was in court to seek justice and clear his name from the malicious publication by Thisday Newspaper, which portrayed him as a deceitful, untrustworthy person who exerts subterranean influences on judicial matters over court sittings in Port Harcourt.
It will be recalled that Governor Wike had in August 2020 slammed a N7 Billion suit being damages for libel written and published in Thisday’s Tuesday, June 23, 2020 edition captioned, “With Wike, Obaseki Meets His PDP’S Waterloo; Almost.”
The defendants in the suit are Thisday Newspapers Limited, Leaders and Company Limited, Davidson Iriekpan, Chuks Okocha and Adibe Emenyonu.
Governor Wike, while testifying as a witness in suit No. PHC/1505/CS/2020 before the Court presided over by Justice A. Enebeli asserted that the defendants maliciously and falsely portrayed him as an unreliable friend/person.
“When you say somebody cannot be trusted, that cannot be a fair comment. When you say somebody is influencing the judiciary, that cannot be a fair comment.”
In his written statement on oath, Governor Wike had stated that the defendants had accused him of influencing the decision of the court sitting in Port Harcourt that granted an injunction restraining Godwin Obaseki from participating in the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State in 2020.
He stated that the defendants maliciously accused him of undemocratically exerting influence on the primaries process of PDP in Edo State in aid of his ally, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, who was the beneficiary of the court order restraining Obaseki from participating in the PDP primaries.
The governor, who told the court that he was not even aware of the suit mentioned earlier by Ogbeide-Ihama against Obaseki, said the publication was reckless, false and without regard for the truth.
According to him, contrary to well known journalistic tradition and practices, the defendants did not investigate properly to ensure the information they relied on was accurate.
“They did not seek to verify the facts from me or in any manner oblige me with the opportunity to state my side of the story before proceeding to make the false publication.”
Wike stated that the defendants further denigrated him before the entire world as a fake democrat who meddled in All Progressives Congress’s internal affairs to get at his political foe, Chibuike Amaechi.
The governor explained that he is not a member of the APC and has had no hand in the internal crisis, which has bedevilled the party both in Rivers State and Nigeria.
“By the letter of Messrs E.C. Ukala and Co., Solicitors, under the hand of Emmanuel C. Ukala, SAN, dated June 23 2020, the defendants were given opportunity to retract and recant the publication as well as to offer an apology for the false publication, but the defendants spurned the opportunity and ignored the letter completely.”
The governor, while responding to claim by a lawyer to the defendants, Turudu Ede, SAN, that the essence of the lawsuit was to intimidate and harass his clients, said the whole nature of the suit was to get justice and clear his name as a man of substantial character, honour and reputation.
“The essence of the suit is to get justice since they (defendants) refused to retract the publication or apologise. So, I sued them to clear my name.”
Speaking to journalists outside the court, one of the lawyers to Governor Wike, Mr Mark Agwu, said his client is in court to seek legal redress.
“To challenge him as a person, it means you have made him untrustworthy, deceit, a cheat, an influencer of the court, because the publication they made was that he had a role to play influencing the outcome of that Federal High Court case. Nobody will take that lightly, and especially for a man who believes in the rule of law.”
The court adjourned the matter for further hearing to the 12th, 13th and 14th of January 2022.
